Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Wildcat Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 24, 2020

Note: This film is available as part of Lubitsch in Berlin 1918-1921.

Ernst Lubitsch’s vaunted “touch” made him something of a rarity in Golden Age Hollywood, namely a star director in a town which more typically tended to be all about "real" stars (as in the kind up there on the silver screen). But what’s interesting about Lubitsch’s Hollywood career is that while it lasted decades and offered scores of films, when you get right down to it, the so-called “Lubitsch touch” might be best remembered for only a veritable handful of outings like Trouble in Paradise, Design for Living, Ninotchka, The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not to Be. Now, it perhaps goes without saying that with a handful like that, who really cares if not all of Lubitsch’s films have managed to penetrate into the public consciousness, but for devoted cineastes with a taste in World Cinema, and in this case World Silent Cinema, this aggregation of six silents Lubitsch made when he was still in Germany may be a bit revelatory, both in terms of subject matter but also in terms of what would soon enough become known as the “Lubitsch touch”.

The Wildcat finds Lubitsch back in a kind of quasi-fairy tale environment, with production design emphasizing outlandish sets and costumes, but this film offers a surprisingly modern feeling takedown of aspects of life in the military (some of this film’s skewering of military incompetence struck me as surprisingly similar to M*A*S*H), and what might be thought of as a dialectic between passion and marriage (the two are definitely mutually exclusive in Lubitsch’s formulation in the film). Pola Negri portrays another kind of “gypsy” character (as she did in Sumurun ), here named Rischka, the daughter of the leader of a ragtag group of bandits. When the bandits accost a young Lieutenant named Alexis (Paul Heidemann), Rischka helps him get out of his predicament and obviously has “eyes” for him. Alexis retreats to the fort where he’s stationed, where he’s more or less looking at an arranged marriage with the much less exotic Lilli (Edith Meller), daughter of the fort’s commander. Negri is an almost feral presence in this film, which may at least help the conventional denouement seem like Alexis' safer choice.

The Wildcat Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Eureka Entertainment provided check discs for the purposes of this review.

The Wildcat is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment's Masters of Cinema imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.32:1. There are some introductory text cards detailing the fact that this was restored in 2000 off of a (the?) camera negative. Whatever restoration efforts were undertaken have not eliminated pretty obvious and recurrent damage. There's a very long lasting scratch on the right side of the frame as the film gets underway which later "travels" to the left side of the frame, where some intermittent flicker is also evident (general flicker frame wide is also noticeable quite a bit of the time). This is another presentation that has some pretty noticeable horizontal scratching toward the top of the frame at times. Maskings in this presentation are often fanciful, but white specks show up pretty regularly in the black part of the frame in these moments. Detail levels on the whole are quite good, and some shots of printed words or even music scores look nicely precise.

The Wildcat Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All of the films in this set feature LPCM 2.0 renderings of musical underscore. Marco Dalpane's kind of carnival-esque sounding score comes through warmly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation.

The Wildcat Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are no supplements tied to individual films included with this set, Disc Three offers the following comprehensive documentary, which does get into at least some of the films and this general era of Lubitsch's life:

• Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schönhauser Allee to Hollywood (HD; 1:26:41) is a well done piece that includes some really sweet reminiscences from some Lubitsch relatives (including his daughter, Nicola), as well as copious footage of Lubitsch's childhood and young man haunts in Berlin. There's quite a bit of information and some appealing stills and archival video of his early work as an actor, including with Max Reinhardt, and a good overview of his early film career as a director. In both German (with English subtitles) and English, depending on the speaker.

Eureka Entertainment only provided check discs for purposes of this review, and so I can't authoritatively comment on non-disc swag, though their website mentions an insert booklet with essays.

The Wildcat Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Wildcat is in fact a pretty wild little enterprise, even if it ultimately gives in to a kind of unexpected conformity. Negri is really almost hypnotic in this film and the story is often intriguing on its own kind of gonzo merits. Video has age related obstacles, but audio is fine. Recommended.